Personal and Professional life: a delicate balance

In Germany, 80% of women entrepreneurs are single and childless, while in France they are half as likely as their male counterparts to balance family life and entrepreneurship^[1]. Having a fulfilling personal life while achieving entrepreneurial ambitions is still a dilemma for many women, leading many of them to abandon one of the two goals. And the unequal distribution of household and family tasks does not make this situation any easier. For example, in the European Union, 79% of women cook and/or clean every day, compared to only 34% of men.[2]

While the balance is more difficult for women to find, entrepreneurship, which offers autonomy and organisational flexibility, can nevertheless be a source of improvement for some women. Thus, 47% of women entrepreneurs believe that they have found a better balance between their professional and personal lives.^[3] For Nathalie Sokoloff, a participant in the fourth edition of the Women Entrepreneur Program, motherhood has proven to be a driving force rather than a constraint. By creating the communication agency A Different Kind of Animal, Nathalie showed her daughter that it is possible to succeed as a woman. Her daughter, now an adult, admires her for this achievement.

“I have a 20 year-old daughter – and she really looks up to me for this specific [entrepreneurial] achievement”.

Changing practices and attitudes to help women pursue their careers and personal lives in harmony is a long-term task in which public policies, companies and individuals have a role to play. Mentoring programs such as the Women Entrepreneur Program are essential to supporting women entrepreneurs in this process. By combining networking sessions and top-class training at Stanford University, this program, co-sponsored by the Women Initiative Foundation, enables, each year, approximately 40 women entrepreneurs from all over the world to build their skills in order to better manage their professional and personal lives.